I'm not sure if this will help you, but in my case, I am severely allergic to
all of the nightshades.  I don't rotate my foods, because I don't have to (I
don't "believe" in rotation, I don't believe that eating the same food over
and over again will make you allergic to it -- there is absollutely NO
scientific evidence of this ridiculous theory -- the onlly advantage of
rotation is to insure variety which imrpoves your chances of getting all the
different nutrients you need).  As for me, when I started the paleo diet, I did
not exclude chocolate or coffee, because I wasn't convinced they were a problem
(I don't drink coffee, but do occasionally eat chocolate -- whole foods has a
candy made entirely out of unsweetened chocolate, honey, and peppermint --
although, truth be told, I haven't eaten this in many, many months).  Now I
exclude it, and I have always excluded cheese, even though I'm not allergic to
it, and even though it is probably the "least-non-paleo" of the dairy products
(more people can tolerate cheese than milk, implying that milk contains more
problematic proteins for humans)  My thinking is, since my case is so extreme,
and I have much to gain (potentially) if the paleo diet helps to cure my
allergies, or even reduce them, that I will keep strict so that I give my body
the best possible chance of improvement..  I recently included a list of foods
sent in an email to the list detailing the improvements.  I have gained only one
new allergy, despite no rotation (and despite the fact that I ate the new
allergenic food only rarely with no less than weeks between), and have lost 10
allergies, some of foods I ate rarely and some which I had mild allergy to, but
ate constantly anyway, and STILL lost the allergy to it.  In addition, there
are foods which I had an moderate allergic reaction to, which I now have a mild
allergy to.  I expect I will continue to improve, and have no intention of ever
going off the paleo diet.  I do not do low carb (if my carbs get too low I get
a little ill) but sometimes I have to go a little low or I will gain too much
weight.  (I like my weight now, at 155lbs, and 12.1% body fat -- used to be
220lbs, and who knows how much fat).  can't seem to get lower than 12.1%,
although I would like to get to h/g of 5-10%.  Ah, screw it.  Close counts in
body fat.

Intended improvements:

Right now I eat a mix of fatty grocery meat and more paleo buffalo meat, with
rare fish, and a lot of fruit (about 1/3 organic, 2/3 grocery), fairly
rarely vegetables (still allergic to many of them), rarely nuts and even more
rarely seeds.  This is according to my budget.  My dietary goal is: Replace
some of the fatty grocery meat with grocery fish (can't afford whole foods
fish, but they have a good selection and price at the oriental market), find
fattier organic meat (usually cheaper as well -- I need a certain amount of
fat),   I hope those omega-3's will kick in and help with my allergies as well,
I have heard and read good things about omega-3's and allergies.

Erik


On Fri, 24 Dec 1999, you wrote: > I am new to posting on
this list. My name is Lauri, am 34. Personally I suffer from joint pain, and
have recently been diagnosed with a mild (so far) case of Rheumatoid Arthritis.
I have an excellent holistic M.D. who has found that I have both a parasite
infection and one strain of candida. I was also tested for food allergies and
have tons of them, including: all dairy products,all the gluten grains, beef,
lamb, pork, eggs. Interestingly however, I did not test allergic to: corn,
rice, a few other non-gluten grains. I've been eating low-carb for a year, and
that has helped my joints to a certain degree. Now that I have these food
allergy test results, I've decided to go on a more tailored diet, keeping the
carbs low to moderate, and avoiding allery foods, also doing the candida diet,
and trying to do all of this paleo style. Oh, and I also may include no
nightshades, b/c it's recommended to avoid them with arthritis. So that leaves
me with not many foods if I actually do all! >  this: allergy-free,
anti-candida, no nightshade, moderate-carb, paleo diet!!!!!! What I'm wondering
is if I need to go this far. I'm DEFINITELY going to avoid the allergic foods
and do the  candida diet for a period of time, and then I imagine I can someday
rotate foods in again. I guess what I'm wondering about is: >  > 1. Do I really
need to avoid nightshades? From a paleo perspective I know some nightshades are
ok. Does anyone have any experience or knowledge to fill in about nightshades
and arthritis? I can't tell in my own body, and I did NOT test allergic to any
of them. Although, I think the reasons why you avoid them with arthritis is not
b/c of an allergic response. > 2. There are many non-paleo foods I did not test
allergic to, such as  corn!!, rice, soy, peanuts, winter squash and sweet
potatoes. If the Loren Cordain (& Ray Audette & others) theories are true about
foreign proteins in grains causing auto-immune disease,then wouldn't the body
show an allergy to whatever grains are causing this? Wouldn't antibodies show
up? I show allergies to all gluten grains, so could I conclude that it's these
grains which are a problem, and the above foods that don't show allergy
response MAY be ok? I'm just looking to not make my diet be almost  nothing. (I
like the paleo idea, and I already avoid grains for the most part, but if rice
or soy or corn or squash or peanuts are not really a problem for me then I'd
like to have the option to eat them occasionally) >  > If anyone has any
feedback on this, I'd really appreciate it. I'm trying to design my diet
adaptions to begin right after x-mas, and it's overwhelming. >  > Thanks folks,
>  > Lauri L.